Glyaden Mennonite Settlement (Siberia, Russia)

Glyaden was a Mennonite settlement in Siberia, between Pavlodar, Slavgorod, and Barnaul, about 75 miles (125 km) east of Slavgorod and 150 miles (250 km) west of Barnaul. It was founded in 1907-1908 by J. N. Dück and K. K. Willms, who were sent by a conference of landless Mennonites (see Anwohner) of the Halbstadt and Gnadenfeld (Molotschna) districts to Siberia to look for land. The meeting was held in Lichtfelde; hence the settlement was often called the Lichtfelde settlement. Dück and Willms accepted a tract of about 16,200 acres from the government; it was intended for 95 families with a population of 384; it was divided into villages with 24 farms each; later another farm was added to each village. After the Revolution the land was redistributed, each person receiving 15.4 acres. In 1927 the population was about 1,000.

The settlement had a difficult beginning because most of the settlers were poor and had been manual laborers and day laborers. But their economic life as well as their spiritual life developed rapidly. They attacked their problems with hope and with vigor; in the course of a few years the steppes had been changed into fertile fields, the houses and cottages were lost in gardens, woods were laid out, and each village had a school.

Glyaden had acquired a reputation by the products of its unceasing toil and its social arrangements. Then came World War I. Most settlers were of military age and were drafted; the women stayed at home alone to meet the new difficulties. Money had to be raised to maintain the men in the service. Horses and wagons were levied for military use. The settlement was nearly brought to ruin. For a few years all life was dormant, and all energy and hope had disappeared. At long last the inhabitants found a way to adapt themselves, and now there was a visible revival. The settlement had its own council and two government schools. Two additional schools functioned but received no support from the state. The settlement had a cooperative, a dairy, a cattle and seed association, and a machinery association; a tractor worked the fields. Two thirds of the inhabitants belonged to the Mennonite Church; they rented a hall in which they conducted services every Sunday. Jakob Warkentin was the elder in 1927. The Mennonite Brethren had their own meetinghouse. Jakob Peters was the elder in 1927. Little is known about the fate of the settlement under the Soviets.